


Green Skin

by sleeplittlechild



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 17:20:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20604455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleeplittlechild/pseuds/sleeplittlechild
Summary: Beau passes time in the tunnel with some people watching. Today, she's watching Fjord.





	Green Skin

Walking through the tunnel - to possible untold death, but Beau was blocking that part out - left not much for personal distraction. Which sucked because walking through an endless tunnel _ needed _ as much distraction as possible. There were plenty of long, long, _ long _ stretches of silence that Beau considered ramming her head into the rock. Sure the pain would be agonizing and there’d be a lot of blood but hey - it’d be a change.

To prevent causing any worry for Jester or Caduceus, Beau turned to her oldest pastime - watching people. Today, her focus was on Fjord.

He’d been quiet, since coming down. Now that they were off the ship, for a good-long while it seemed, he looked more than ready to fade into the background. The Mighty Nein wouldn’t let him, of course, but she was content to allow him his personal space to recharge from the leadership role.

Something else she noticed, was how much he was staring at Nott.

Beau wasn’t gonna lie - she’d be watching Nott a lot, too. The history dump she’d given the Nein was a lot all at once. She probably wouldn’t have the time to process all of it if not for the monotony of the tunnel. Nott was like a different woman now - a brave, caring woman, versus before she had seemed silly and impulsive. Beau was still deciding if it was because she was seeing into who Nott really was, or if she was finally seeing Veth.

But the point of distraction was to not get lost in your own thoughts. Beau was focusing on Fjord today.

As Caleb and Caduceus talked about how to set up the dome and make camp, Beau sat down against the wall beside Fjord. If Fjord noticed he didn’t show it. He was looking between the floor and Nott.

“It’s a lot, yeah?” Beau began. Fjord resituated himself, slouching against the wall in a way that seemed both relaxed and defensive, but he didn’t say anything. “Learning all of that at once? It’s a lot to take in.”

“Yeah.” He drawled on. “It just...sort of feels like…you don’t really know a person, sometimes.”

Beau sighed. “Yeah, but...man, you can’t put that on her. This isn’t like all the crap Vandren stuck you with. She...She’s been through a lot.” Beau looked over at Nott; she was sitting beside Jester, who was playing with Nugget and practicing his blinking abilities. “I don’t blame her. Everything she did, I don’t think she’s had time to handle it. Can’t really expect other people to do what you can, you know?” Beau turned to Fjord.

Fjord breathed out. Beau let him take his time and just watched him. She watched the expressions play out on his face. Guarded and defensive, holding whatever it was that he was thinking about this whole situation inside. Contemplative, taking what Beau and processing it.

Resignation. Beau saw it, but didn’t understand why it was there. Had...did Fjord really hold a grudge against Nott for not telling them everything? “Wait...are you seriously -”

“I’m not mad at Nott.” Fjord cut her off, interrupting but not snapping at her. Beau propped up her knee and let her arm dangle off it. She patiently waited for him to continue. Fjord rubbed his chin. There was a grumble deep in his throat. “I’m...I’m not..._ angry _ with her. She has every right to her privacy. What she told us...Gods, what she did, I don’t think I would’ve survived that. Not on my own.” He started to smile - one of the kinds he did when he was feeling sorry for himself. “I’m lucky to have found Jester so quick. Nott lived with the goblins for a whole year, all by herself. She was so...brave.”

Beau blinked at him. He wasn’t looking back at her - Fjord was staring into the middle distance. Towards Nott. “So what’s got you so bent out of shape?”

Fjord groaned. He stuck out his left arm. Beau watched him undo the buckles that strapped it to his forearm and wrist. Carefully placing it aside so it would rattle, he then untied the red ties and pushed down the sleeve past and off his hand.

[](https://ibb.co/nj8xwmy)

“What...is that?”

“It’s a soul mark.” Fjord bent his knees closer to his chest and rested his elbow across them. “It’s supposed to be the name of my one, true soulmate.”

Beau couldn’t stop staring at it. Her immediate reaction had been to laugh and say Fjord was one of those pathetic saps who got their girlfriend’s name tattooed across their chests (or apparently their arm) but the name was faded. An old scar from years, years gone past. It was there before before Fjord had met Uk’otoa, before Veth had been taken by the goblins, before the Mighty Nein. And it had been lost...until.

“But those...they don’t exist. Not anymore. They’re like, super rare.”

“Trust me, I’m...I am quite aware. The ladies at the orphanage were always very eager to tell me how strange it was that out of all the children, I was the one who woke up with a name on my wrist. A half-orc bastard, blessed by the Gods as one of the few to find a soulmate” Fjord passed his other hand over the words. Were the letters raised, like a scar? Or did Fjord just feel smoothness - was the name so a part of him, he couldn’t tell the difference. 

“I felt it, when it faded. When...I thought it was because of Uk’otoa, because of the shipwreck. I never imagined she was still alive. That I’d even find her...”

Which was the craziest part, too. Fjord and Nott were like cats and dogs (Frumpkin and Nugget excluded.) They snapped and hissed at each other. Beau didn’t think she was crazy in saying that they tolerated each other, for everyone else’s sake. Now...

“Damn, dude.” Beau said. “She’s married…”

Fjord nodded. He curled his hand into a fist - they both watched the muscle flex under the name. “I know.”

“Like, we’re about to go into an active war zone, to get her husband back.”

“I know.”

“And, we know that he’s still alive. And she’s like, super in love with him. She’s been sending him stuff, and they’ve got a kid, and -”

“I know, Beau.” Fjord snapped, and sighed. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean...to lose my temper. It’s just...I know. It’s, it’s all I’ve thought about since we found out about all this.”

Fjord stared at the name on his wrist. Beau watched him. His chin was jutted forward, making his tusks more prominent but also a sign of how hard he was trying not to clench his jaw. The claws of his hand clacked together. He took deep breaths, not out of a calming effort, but from thinking too much to do it regularly.

“What’re you gonna do?”

Fjord laughed. He reached for the sleeve and began putting it back on as he talked. “Me? I’m not gonna do anything?”

“You’re not gonna tell her?”

“What good would that do? She’s married - you said so yourself. And we’re gonna get her husband back, and they’re gonna go home to their son and live happily ever after.”

Beau gaped. “But...but if she’s your soulmate - ”

“Then I know she’s gonna be happy.” Fjord gave the sleeve an emphatic _ tug _ over his elbow. “And that’s more than a lot of people can say.”

“What if she’s got - ”

“She probably had it when she was…” Neither spoke; the name hung between them in the palpable silence. “She probably didn’t even notice. I heard that sometimes people don’t even know about them their whole lives. And since hers...ended, maybe it got...washed off.”

_ Washed off _ . Like the mark was a bit of mud or cooking flour. A temporary little nuisance - not _ your soulmate _.

Fjord got the sleeve back in place. Balancing it on his knees again, he laid the ties across his arm. “Besides, Nott’s got enough reasons to hate me before I subject myself to being a homewrecker. I put her out in the water for a month and convinced her to dive into it by telling her some bull of Buttonbill.” He pulled tight on the red cord, digging into the meat of his arm.

Beau pursed her lips. After a beat, she slapped Fjord’s hands away and took the cord in between her fingers. “Buttonbeard.”

“What?”

“You called him Buttonbeard. And we did find a bunch of gold, so it wasn't a total bull.”

Fjord rolled his eyes. “Nott hates me. She’s more likely to tear my face off with her teeth than…”

Beau caught the expression on Fjord’s face the moment before he forced it back to neutral. _ Than... _ whatever was to follow that, Fjord had thought about it. _ Was _ thinking about it.

“I’m not telling her. Let’s just focus on getting to...Yeza and getting out of here.” Beau tightened the knot and slouched back beside Fjord. “Thanks.” He muttered.

Beau nodded. Looking back, Caduceus had just finished carving the tunnel enough to allow for a little roof for the dome. Nugget blinked next to him, his loud barks echoing off the tunnel. Jester rushed up to him and cradled his face between her blue hands. Caleb absentmindedly scratched at the fur as he drew the ritual circle for the dome.

Nott, Nott stood off to the side. In her gray clothes, she blended into the tunnel. Except she was calling out to Nugget, voice booming just as much as Nugget’s barks. Her green skin caught the light of Caleb’s dancing lights and reminded Beau of bright green grass, the likes they hadn’t seen since Felderwin.

To Fjord, Nott, the Brave, and Veth Brenatto, had been lost, and found again. And when they got to Xhorhas, she would be lost again.

Beau shoved her shoulder into Fjord’s. “I got your back, Cap’n.”

Fjord smiled, only a little. “Thanks, First Mate.” It was the first true smile Beau had seen him crack. He didn’t turn to look at her when he said it, and Beau didn’t mind. Beau let the conversation drop. Just let him stare at Nott.

Watching people was a dangerous pastime. She’d have to find something new before they got out of the tunnel.


End file.
